2016, a year of worst political upheaval in Uttarakhand

2016 saw the worst political crisis in Uttarakhand marked by a major revolt against Chief Minister Harish Rawat by his own party's MLAs which caused his ouster from power and imposition of President's rule in the state which lasted for nearly two months till his reinstatement after the intervention of courts.
Before the political upheaval started in the state, injury sustained by a police horse named Shaktiman during an anti- government protest demonstration by Opposition BJP also dominated the national scene. The horse sustained injuries on one of its hind legs after getting entangled in a hole. BJP MLA Ganesh Joshi was charged with lashing the horse during the demonstration causing its collapse and was arrested.

The horse contracted infection due to its injured leg which had to be amputated with the help of doctors from abroad. However, the horse could not be saved as it died after battling infections caused by the injury for over a month on April 20.
In the hot political atmosphere of the election-bound state, Rawat was also accused of being hand-in-glove with the mining, land and liquor mafia prompting BJP to go to people of the state with these issues through a parivartan yatra which was addressed by prominent party leaders like its chief Amit Shah and Union ministers Manohar Parrikar, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Suresh Prabhu, Radhamohan Singh, Dharmendra Pradhan and J P Nadda.

Congress also took the battle to the people's court through its "Satat Sankalp Yatras" attacking BJP for its undemocratic ways and doing injustice to the state by denying it central funds.
The 16th year of Uttarakhand, which was carved out of Uttar Pradesh in 2000, was indeed a defining, coming-of-age year also for Indian democracy as the prolonged face-off between the state and the Centre caused the courts to pull up the executive for the haste with which it had acted.

The trouble was triggered by the discontent long smoldering in the Vijay Bahuguna camp of the ruling Congress since denial of ministerial berths or significant PCC positions to his loyalists and a Rajya Sabha ticket to himself.

It finally flared up on March 18 when as many as nine party MLAs revolted against Rawat seeking a division of votes on the appropriation bill along with the rest of the Opposition in the state assembly the moment Speaker Govind Singh Kunjwal asked State Finance Minister Indira Hridayesh to table the collective legislation on the state's annual budget.
Unprecedented pandemonium ensued in the House as BJP MLAs and the nine Congress rebels together demanded a division of votes on the legislation. The House was later adjourned amid prevailing din and the appropriation bill was declared as passed.
In view of the prevailing circumstances, the Governor

invited the chief minister to prove his majority on the floor of the House. As Holi was around the corner, Rawat asked for a time after the festival and the Governor directed him to go for a trial of strength in the assembly on March 28 giving him ten days' time for the purpose which did not go down well with the BJP legislators who opined that it would give the ruling party a lot of time for horsetrading.
MLAs who had rebelled against Rawat by standing in solidarity with Opposition legislators in the assembly were served show cause notices under the anti-defection law by the Speaker prompting BJP and rebel Congress MLAs to accuse him of acting as a Congress leader despite occupying a constitutional post.

The political goings on in Uttarakhand took a dramatic twist on March 26 when rebel MLA Bahuguna's son Saket released an alleged sting CD at a press conference in Delhi purportedly showing Rawat negotiating a deal to buy rebel party MLAs' support to save his government.
The Home Ministry immediately sent the CD to Chandigarh- based Forensic Lab for testing which submitted its report urgently. The Cabinet recommended imposition of President's rule in the state citing collapse of constitutional machinery and took the President's assent.
Citing Constitutional breakdown, the state was brought under President's rule on March 27, just a day before the government was to go for a floor test. In the afternoon the Speaker disqualified the rebel MLAs.

Both the sides went to court with Rawat challenging imposition of President's rule.The Supreme Court as well as the Uttarakhand High Court pulled up the Centre for showing undue haste in imposing President's rule in the state without giving the state government a chance to prove its majority.
The political crisis apparently blew over with the intervention of the courts which asked Rawat to go for a court monitored floor test in a house with a substantially reduced strength sans the rebel MLAs.
The disqualified MLAs were not allowed to vote in the floor test and the chief minister scraped through the exercise paving the way for his reinstatement in the top office in less than two months of his dramatic ouster.

The disqualified MLAs later joined BJP. Besides the nine rebel Congress MLAs, party MLA from Someshwar Rekha Arya also joined BJP taking the number of MLAs deserting Congress to 10. Meanwhile, BJP MLA from Ghansali Bhimlal Arya and BJP MLA from Bhimtal Dansingh Bhandari quit their party to join Congress.
Though the political crisis apparently ended with Rawat's reinduction in office, the period that followed saw a lot of inveighing between the two warring sides with the ruling Congress holding the Centre responsible for the crisis and Opposition BJP blaming rifts within the government and the communication gap between an autocratic chief minister and his MLAs for the mess.

Congress accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah of engineering defections within the party and dislodging a democratically-elected government as part of a larger conspiracy to topple non-BJP governments anywhere in the country.First it was Arunachal Pradesh and now it was Uttarakhand, they said.